We have become a society of people mostly concerned with only the wants and needs of our own selves. If a baby is inconvenient in any way – created at the "wrong time" or deemed not "perfect" – many people jump at the chance to "get rid of the problem." This despicable attitude toward children, if not altered, will lead to the downfall of humanity. Today's commentary addresses the myriad of ways we deal with babies and children in our culture and encourages us to examine our actions.

The cultural elite spend a lot of time studying the human being and how the individual lives his or her life. We have statistics on everything including teenage vegetarians and their health.

Among the most recent studies on women and their behavior is the government-funded study that found that, for women between the ages of 15 and 44, their "first union" was cohabitation rather than marriage. Three out of every four women make this choice prior to age 30 and, of those, one in five becomes pregnant. How many of these women choose abortion we may never know.

This statistic is not shocking if taken in the isolated, sterile setting that is typical of our popular attitudes toward families, babies, and marriage between one man and one woman who have a common goal to have a family. But it is another sign of our growing disdain for ethical values and the natural law.

If we step back from the typical pro-life arguments and simply look at this picture through the looking glass of the year 2013, there are some very interesting questions we can ask. For example, what is our hesitation to speak to our children about all the reasons why living together before marriage is dangerous and wrong? Is this attitude toward acceptance part of the reason why doctors who care for children engage the lobbying services of a woman who favors killing children once they are born? In addition, is our immersion in the idea that treating infertility means using in vitro fertilization instead of adopting a child one of the reasons why bioethicists are discussing the ways in which they can breed better humans in a petri dish?

Has the attitude that pregnancy is a disease – meaning that babies are disposable – paved the way for America's national healthcare law defining the act of abortion as healthcare? In fact, for babies who suffer from Respiratory Syncytial Virus, there is now a policy in place that severely cuts the number of babies who are even eligible to receive treatment. Jill Stanek calls this "baby death panels."

Such denial of treatment is legal, and it is just another sign that our society detests children.

The scenario we have described is not a myth, and it is not easily overcome. Americans have become accustomed to having their own way, even when it comes to the fate of their own preborn children. If they happen to be abortion-minded, they don't even recognize their babies before birth as family members. Pregnancy becomes a problem, period. What they care about specifically is their own freedom to do as they wish. Such attitudes trump everything including respect for the intrinsic human rights of their own babies.

We have become convinced in this nation that cohabitation is part of the way things are today. In the same way that it has become normalized for many of our teens to obtain contraception and abortion services without the knowledge or consent of their parents, so too living with a boyfriend or girlfriend has become part and parcel of the American scene. Most of us, I would guess, can think of at least one friend or family member who lets their child spend the night with their boyfriend or girlfriend – maybe even in their own home.

Such practices lay the foundation for future broken homes, future deaths of preborn babies, future illnesses due to polluting a young body with contraceptive chemicals, and future sexually transmitted diseases that may never go away.

There was a time when we understood that there is a price to pay for being promiscuous. We did not excuse living together as a legitimate choice and, of course, few chose killing a preborn baby. It did happen, but not as frequently as today.

Today we seem to be too willing to legitimize even those practices that could lead to sorrow, illness, and death. John Stonestreet, who is not afraid to tell the truth about promiscuity and the fallout from this behavior, wrote:

Look, nature is obviously indifferent to our ideas about "freedom." As the philosopher Joseph John Rickaby wrote a century ago, "Nature abhors promiscuity." He called promiscuity "suicidal" and added that a society where it was acceptable would be plagued by infertility and disease.

Time has proven him right, even if those entrusted with public health refuse to say so.

Judie Brown

Judie Brown is president and co-founder of American Life League, the nation's largest grassroots pro-life educational organization... (more)

Judie Brown is president and co-founder of American Life League, the nation's largest grassroots pro-life educational organization.

She has served three terms as a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life in Rome. Daily Catholic cited her as one of the top 100 Catholics of the 20th century.

Judie has appeared on 20/20, 60 Minutes, Mother Angelica Live, The O'Reilly Factor, Good Morning America, Today, Oprah, and Larry King Live, as well as hundreds of other television and radio talk shows. Her comments regularly appear in major print media nationwide, and she has written numerous editorial pieces for magazines and newspapers, including The Washington Post and USA Today.

Judie is married to Paul A. Brown, and they have three children and nine grandchildren. She and her husband have been involved in the pro-life movement since 1969.